McGregor Fight Announcement Coming Soon!

Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports

It’s been a year since Conor McGregor last competed inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Octagon, losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov via submission at UFC 229 (see it again here).

While the fiery Irishman has been teasing returns here and there, nothing has come of it. But according to “Notorious,” it’s not because he doesn’t want to fight, but rather because UFC matchmakers won’t give him a fight.

“Funny enough, I just want to compete now,” McGregor said Tuesday at a media event in the Ukraine hosted by betting site Parimatch, via ESPN.

“I was trying to get the Dec. 14th card, for whatever reason they’ve been holding me back. I’m giving them dates, I’m saying I want to fight this date, this date, this date, this date in a row, and we had opponents selected and everything and they’re just making it very difficult for me for whatever reason.”

Indeed, Conor did drop hints of Dec. 14, but UFC didn’t take the bait. That’s because UFC 245 — set to go down at that date — already has three title fights on it, and adding Conor to the already-stacked event might be overkill.

Conor was recently lobbying for a fight against former Lightweight champion, Frankie Edgar, and even offered to donate his entire fight purse to charity. But that request was turned down, as well.

“I even offered for the Frankie Edgar bout to donate my purse to charity,” McGregor said. “Because they were saying we won’t make enough money on the Frankie fight and I was like, I don’t care, don’t worry about me, give my purse to charity. But for whatever reason it’s being made difficult.”

That said, “Notorious” did reveal that he is close to announcing his comeback bout, which could come while he’s on his current media tour.

“We’re very close to announcing it, not just yet,” McGregor said. “But surely over the course of this trip we should have an announcement. That’s what we’re aiming for.”

While Tony Ferguson is the front-runner to face Khabib next for the division strap, it leaves other options available for “Notorious.” Chief among them are Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier.

Care to offer up your guess…or two?